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Debate Recap; Clinton Three for Three on Debates. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired October 20, 2016 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

We start with Donald Trump. He's holding a campaign event in Ohio right now. This is his first campaign event after last night's final presidential debate.

At the beginning of his remarks, he tried to suggest he was going to clarify his controversial comments on whether he would accept the outcome of the U.S. presidential election. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I would like to promise and pledge to all of my voters and supporters and to all of the people of the United States that I will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election if I win.

I would accept a clear election result, but I would also reserve my right to contest or file a legal challenge in the case of a questionable result.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Hillary Clinton is off the campaign trail today, though she will appear later tonight as will Donald Trump. They will both appear at the Al Smith dinner in New York City. It's a traditional white tie affair where the presidential candidates typically poke some fun at each other. It's unclear if Trump and Clinton will follow that tradition tonight after that bitter debate last night.

Here's the campaign map as it stands right now. You see Donald Trump at his Ohio event today. Vice presidential candidate Mike Pence, the Republican, he's in Nevada and then New Mexico.

On the Clinton side, she's got President Obama out on the campaign trail for her in Florida today. The first lady, Michelle Obama, she's talking to voters in Arizona.

My political panel is with us. Dana Bash, our Chief Political Correspondent; Gloria Borger, our Chief Political Analyst; David Nakamura, reporter for "The Washington Post"; and Carol Lee, the White House reporter for "The Wall Street Journal." All right. So, Gloria, he wanted to have a little fun with his very controversial comments last night when he refused to say he would accept the results of the election. So, he opened up his remarks just a little while ago with what he thought was a joke.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: If I win, I'll accept the results. Well, it's not a joke. You know, this is something we have heard from Donald Trump since last May. And I have something he said last May. He said, you've been hearing me say it's a rigged system but now I don't say it anymore because I won. It's true.

And he said -- you know, he said, now, I don't care. I don't care. The only way I won was I won by such a big margin because it is a rigged stem. And that is not the way we do politics in this country. That is not what our Constitution says. And that is not what separates us from other countries.

If there are election irregularities, if there was a close race, the secretaries of state, of each state, have automatic recount rules. That is what happened in Florida in the year 2000. It was half of one percent, automatic recount. Those are the things that this country does.

But to assume, as he does, up front, that there will be fraud and, therefore, he has to sue, takes it to a different level entirely.

BLITZER: It's a whole new different level, indeed, right now.

BORGER: Yes.

BLITZER: And, Dana, if Trump keeps claiming and he's doing it, once again, today that the whole system, the election, is rigged. And he's got all sorts of statistics why he thinks it's rigged. You had a chance last night to speak with his campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway. You spoke briefly right after the debate. I want to play a clip of that. And also what she told CNN's "NEW DAY" this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, MANAGER, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: Donald Trump will accept results of the election because he's going to win the election.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: SO, what you're telling me is that on election night, if he's sort of waffling, you, as his campaign manager, will say, Mr. Trump, no matter what it is -- I mean, obviously, it won't be big deal if he wins. But if he doesn't, you will say, Mr. Trump, this is what is going to happen and you're going to accept these results.

CONWAY: Absent evidence of widespread abuse and irregularities, yes, I would say that.

Donald Trump has said, over time, if you take all these statements together, Chris, he has said that he will respect the results the election. But everybody, including Al Gore in 2000, waits to see what those election results are. You wait to see what the results are, if they're verified, if they're certified.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So, there seems to be a disconnect. Kellyanne Conway on the one hand. Donald Trump on the other hand. His vice presidential running mate, Mike Pence, spoke to us just before the debate last night and said, of course, we will accept the results the outcome of this election. So, what do you see is going on here?

BASH: Clean-up. I mean, that's just the -- there's no other way to put it. Clean-up. The fact that Kellyanne Conway came out just really moments after the debate ended and told me what you just played there. And she is somebody -- not only is she his campaign manager, but she has been involved in his debate preparation, tells me that that is what they had hoped that he would say.

[13:05:09] And the fact that he came out today with a scripted speech, read the words on teleprompter, just maxed that (ph) that up. And it shows where they wanted him to go.

And there's a lot of frustration because absent this and a few other quips that are making some headlines, he had a pretty good debate. Certainly, a better debate than he ever has before. And they felt good about it. But, as we all know from history, one line, one misstep can erase all of that.

BLITZER: You spent a lot of time, Gloria, looking at the 2000 election, Gore v. Bush, the recount. The Supreme Court eventually got involved. I was down in Tallahassee covering all of that as well. Trump spoke about it just a few minutes ago. Let me play the clip and we'll discuss.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Then I was asked a question about whether I would agree in advance to concede the results on election night if, for some reason, we should lose which we're not going to lose. And that was sort of an unprecedented question.

If Al Gore or George Bush had agreed three weeks before the election to concede results and waive their right to a legal challenge or a recount, then there would be no Supreme Court case and no Gore versus Bush or Bush versus Gore. And there have been numerous other cases. In effect, I'm being asked to waive centuries of legal precedent designed to protect the voters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right. So, Gloria, you hear what he's saying. Your reaction.

BORGER: Well, this is like comparing an apple to an elephant. These -- they are two completely different things. First of all, Al Gore did not charge that the election was rigged before the election. He actually did call Bush and concede that night, because it looked like Florida had gone for Bush. When he discovered that -- and even Jeb Bush says this. When he discovered that the state was so close, that the secretary of state, they couldn't certify the election, he did un-concede because the votes needed to be counted.

BASH: It's an automatic recount.

BORGER: That was an automatic recount at half of one percent. And when Donald Trump talks about the legal suits and all the rest, there was an automatic recount. But it was Jim Baker who actually ended up taking this case to the Supreme Court. Just for the record.

BASH: Can I just add one quick thing to that which is I remember as a younger producer, sitting in the House chamber, watching the election results of 2000 being certified.

And as irony would have it, the person who does that is the vice president. And so, Al Gore was sitting in the House chamber, certifying the election results for his opponent, and having to beat back requests from his fellow Democrats to challenge the election results.

BORGER: That's right.

BASH: Because he wanted to follow the rules and the laws.

BORGER: And Al Gore, on his -- in his concession speech -- it took 36 days, if you'll recall, for this to get decided. And he said to the American people, it is crucial that the American people have full faith and confidence in the electorate process from which the president derives authority.

BLITZER: Last night, in the debate, David, there were several substantive issues where these two candidates, on a serious level, totally disagreed. Let me play a little clip and we'll explain.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: But we have some bad hombres here and we're going to get them out.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When it comes to the wall that Donald talks about building, he went to Mexico. He had a meeting with the Mexican president. He didn't even raise it. He choked.

TRUMP: I don't know Putin. He said nice things about me.

CLINTON: Well, that's because he'd rather have a puppet as president of the United States.

TRUMP: No puppet. No puppet.

CLINTON: And it's pretty clear --

TRUMP: You're the puppet. CLINTON: Donald thinks belittling women makes him bigger.

TRUMP: I didn't even apologize to my wife, who's sitting right here, because I didn't do anything.

Hey, the one thing you have over me is experience but it's bad experience because what you've done has turned out badly.

CLINTON: I was in the situation room monitoring the raid that brought Osama Bin Laden to justice. He was hosting "The Celebrity Apprentice."

My social security payroll contribution will go up as will Donald's, assuming he can't figure out how to get out of it. But what we want to do is to replenish --

TRUMP: Such a nasty woman.

CHRIS WALLACE, HOST, FOX NEWS: -- you will absolutely accept the results of this election?

TRUMP: I will tell you at the time. I will keep you in suspense.

CLINTON: Well, Chris, let me respond to that, because that's horrifying.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: A little -- a little example of what was going on, David, last night. They totally disagree on so many issues. And after some substantive serious debating, they got really personal.

[13:10:01] DAVID NAKAMURA, REPORTER, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Of course they got personal and that was expected. But what you saw secretary Clinton doing, I think this was clearly part of her strategy, was to continue to needle him in a way that got under his skin. And him to use slangs such as, you know -- you know, Spanish words, bad hombres, and sort of undercut some of his message to Latino communities and what not.

But he also reacted in a poor way to what she was saying, what he's done throughout all three debates really. She did not take the bait, not nearly as much as he did.

BLITZER: She clearly wanted to get under his -- her -- his skin and she did.

CAROL LEE, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": She did. And if you look at the beginning of the debate, it was very, kind of, cordial and they were answering questions about policy. And then, she stuck to him with saying that he choked when he met with the Mexican president. And then, that was it.

And then, from there on, it was just, you know, we got nasty woman, we got bad hombres and a number things. And then, we got the moment that's overshadowing everything which he doubled down on today which is he may not accept the election results.

BORGER: We got the puppet.

LEE: Right.

BASH: No, you're a puppet.

LEE: Right, and all that. And I have to say, though, in listening to him talk today, it's, like -- so, he's saying that he's unprecedentedly being asked this question of whether he would accept the results. But he's being asked the question because he's been saying that the election is rigged.

And I spent time with him on the campaign trail today and, you know, all of us are talking about how this is -- you know, it bucks the tradition of American politics. And the thing about his supporters is they don't care. They actually really like that. And his rigged lines are some of the ones that get the biggest reaction.

BLITZER: But if he's going to be president of the United States, he needs to go beyond that base.

LEE: That's right.

BLITZER: He needs to bring in others. Listen to Senator John McCain who lost back in 2008. This is a statement that he released today and I'll read it. I didn't like the outcome of the 2008 election, but I had a duty to concede and I did so without reluctance. A concession isn't just an exercise in graciousness. It is an act of respect for the will of the American people. A respect that is every American leader's first responsibility.

In every previous election, the loser congratulates the winner and calls them my president. That's not just the Republican way or the Democratic way, it's the American way. This election must not be any different. A very strong statement, Carol, from John McCain who actually lost the presidential contest.

LEE: Right. So, he knows what this is like. And you've seen a number of Republicans say this makes them very uncomfortable. This is not something that you would expect ever from a nominee for a major party. And you see that in John McCain's statement. You saw Senator Lindsey Graham say something about this.

And so, he's just, again, alienating himself from the broader Republican Party and sticking with and --

NAKAMURA: Well, listening to it -- I mean, I cover the White House like Carol. It's redounding to the highest office of having the President Obama respond in the Rose Garden, just this week at a bilateral appearance with a head -- another head of state from Italy, talking about the American system. The Italian prime minister lavished praise on the United States as a great partner, an ally and a -- and sort of a beacon of, you know, sort of, values.

And the president here -- the president's first question to him was about this very thing. The president expressed great frustration with this idea that the system is rigged. And the next day, he spoke to him yesterday, Josh Earnest said the president's very concerned about this kind of rhetoric.

BORGER: If you're a -- if you're a down ballot Republican -- say you're Marco Rubio and you're running in the state of Florida, and, by the way, you're running ahead of Donald Trump, and Donald Trump is saying the system is rigged.

What if you win the state of Florida, and Donald Trump doesn't win the state Florida. And it's not an automatic recount as it was in Bush v. Gore. Say it's a few points. Well -- and Donald Trump is saying it was rigged in Florida. What does that do to the legitimacy of your own election? And, you know, there are lots of Republicans running in battleground states. And, you know -- and I think he's creating a problem for his own party --

BLITZER: So, --

BORGER: -- which is why people like --

BLITZER: -- we're going to take a quick break.

BORGER: -- McCain was running.

BLITZER: But, Dana, his speech just now, Trump, he's really doubling down on this.

BASH: He -- I mean, he did with the joke, which, you know, OK, fine. You know, it's good red meat for your base, as Carol was saying. They love it, love it, love it. And he knows that. And he's a performer and he wants to feel the love from the crowd.

The part of the -- of the speech that was very carefully written, that he clearly read from the teleprompter, was him saying what he probably should have said last night, which is, of course, I will accept, barring anything that shows that we have to, you know, challenge the results because of some electoral issue. Didn't fully say what John McCain wants him to say or other people want him to say. But didn't, you know, say, I'm going to keep you in suspension which is not --

BLITZER: All right, everybody, hold your thoughts.

BORGER: Well, it's hard to do both. It's a rigged system and say --

BLITZER: Hold your thoughts for a moment. There's much more coming up. We'll have much more with our panel.

Plus, fact checking this, the third and final presidential debate, from allegations that undocumented workers helped build Trump Tower to the battle for Mosul being a ploy to help Hillary Clinton. What's true? What's not true?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: But you know who the big winner, in Mosul, is going to be, after we eventually get it? And the only reason they did it is because she' running for the office of president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: We're back with our political panel. Dana Bash, Gloria Borger, David Nakamura, and Carol Lee.

Dana, I'm going to play a clip, a little bit more of where these two candidates last night totally disagree.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We need a Supreme Court that, in my opinion, is going to uphold the Second Amendment, and all amendments, but the Second Amendment, which is under absolute siege.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I understand and respect the tradition of gun ownership. It goes back to the founding of our country. But I also believe that there can be and must be reasonable regulation.

CHRIS WALLACE, MODERATOR: Do you want to see the court overturn Roe v. Wade?

TRUMP: Well, if we put another two or perhaps three justices on, that's really what's going to be -- that will happen. And that will happen automatically in my opinion because I am putting pro-life justices on the court.

CLINTON: I want to get everybody out of the shadows, get the economy working and not let employers like Donald exploit undocumented workers, which hurts them but also hurts American workers.

TRUMP: We cannot give amnesty. Now, I want to build the wall. We need the wall. The border patrol, ICE, they all want the wall. We stop the drugs. We shore up the border. One of my first acts will be to get all of the drug lords, all of the bad ones. We have some bad, bad people in this country that have to go out.

[13:20:13] CLINTON: I want to get everybody out of the shadows, get the economy working, and not let employers like Donald exploit undocumented workers, which hurts them but also hurts American workers.

I want us to do more to help small business. That's where two-thirds of the new jobs are going to come from. I want us to raise the national minimum wage because people who live in poverty should not -- who work full time should not still be in poverty. And I sure do want to make sure women get equal pay for the work we do.

TRUMP: So my plan, we're going to renegotiate trade deals. We're going to have a lot of free trade. We're going to have free trade. More free trade than we have right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BLITZER: All right, so you see, some of the issues like guns, for example, abortion rights for women, very, very strong differences. Donald Trump, on abortion rights, wants to do away with Roe v. Wade, leave it up to the states, he says, hopes it isn't national. Hillary Clinton, of course, supports abortion rights for women.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And it really shows you why if you took the personalities and the character traits out of these candidates, which is not easy to do, but if you could try, you could see that this could and should be a very, very tight race. And if you just look at CNN's poll right after the debate last night, on all of the issues, they were almost evenly split. Almost couldn't tell the difference between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump because it does show and mirror the divide in this country. There really are very, very different choices. Never mind the temperament. Never mind the outsider versus insider. But in terms of the issues that really affect people's lives in this country, very stark choices between these two candidates and it did come out last night.

BLITZER: On gun, for example, Gloria, he says Hillary Clinton wants to effectively do away with the Second Amendment --

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Right.

BLITZER: Which gives Americans the right to own a gun. And she says she supports the Second Amendment, but she wants greater controls --

BORGER: With regulation.

BLITZER: To make sure that guns don't get into the hands of bad guys.

BORGER: She wants regulation. In many ways I was thinking what Dana was thinking, so I was listening to the beginning of this debate, which was, it seemed to be a very kind of traditional Republican versus Democratic debate, aside from trade, because Donald Trump is not a traditional Republican on trade, and aside from Syria, because Hillary Clinton is more muscular and more interventionist on Syria than either Barack Obama or Donald Trump.

But, take those two things aside, this is the kind of conventional debate you would have been having with a more conventional candidate. But what starts out as a debate about policy and a serious debate about policy, kind of devolves into -- into something else, usually after the first 30 or 40 minutes.

BLITZER: What did you think of his assertion, David, that the military offensive on Mosul in Iraq right now was designed by the Iraqi military, the Iraqi government of Haider al-Abadi, the Kurdish Peshmerga, the Varzanis (ph) and others in Kurdistan, to the timing of it was designed to help Hillary Clinton in these last few days of this American election?

DAVID NAKAMURA, REPORTER, "WASHINGTON POST": It's almost hard to fathom an argument like that. I mean this is an administration that's been dealing with this issue for so long, spans more than one administration. They're not waiting around for the results of an election cycle to try to, you know, take an offensive this seriously (INAUDIBLE).

BASH: Neither are the Peshmerga.

NAKAMURA: Right. Absolutely.

BORGER: Right.

NAKAMURA: None of the coalition that's involved in this is dealing with that. And President Obama, if anything, it's risky to some degree to take an offensive like this. You don't know if it's going to work. You don't' know what's going to happen. So to say that is completely outside the box. But, you know, Republicans --

CAROL LEE, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": It also -- it also, though, is part of his, you know, everything is against me. It's all about, they're doing this to conspire against me. And the idea that Mosul, which the Islamic state took more than two years ago, is now, you know, now we're fighting a battle there because they -- Iraq, the president, people want him to lose the election or want to help Hillary Clinton, is just -- it doesn't even bear out.

BORGER: And yet he doesn't accept the -- he doesn't want to talk about the Russia hack, which could potentially help him, which the Democrats are charging the Russians are doing to aid his candidacy (INAUDIBLE).

BLITZER: She kept saying, all these U.S. intelligence agencies have confirmed --

BORGER: Right.

BLITZER: That Russia's responsible for these attacks on the Democratic Party and others and Trump's not ready to accept that intelligence assessment, at least not yet.

All right, guys, stay with us. Don't go too far away.

[13:24:30] Coming up, the podium pivot. Hillary Clinton gets a question about one of her paid bank speeches and pivots to Trump and Vladimir Putin. Need she need a better answer for voters? I'll ask Pennsylvania senator and Clinton supporter Bob Casey. He's standing by live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Hillary Clinton is now three for three in the presidential debates. This according to our CNN polling of debate watchers. She also holds a commanding lead nationally, as well as in key swing states. But there are still 19 days to go before the U.S. election and Clinton supporters say it's not over until it's over.

Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania is a Clinton supporter. He's joining us live from Capitol Hill.

Senator, thanks for joining us. SEN. BOB CASEY (D), PENNSYLVANIA: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: So what's your biggest concern now -- your biggest concern right now between now and Election Day?

CASEY: Well, we just want to make sure that we maintain the momentum. I think Secretary Clinton, last night, continued that momentum with a great debate performance. It was a real contrast for -- it seemed like every time she's trying to focus on her plan to raise incomes for middle class families or focus on specific policy solutions for families, her opponent takes the debate in other directions. I thought she did very well.